I'll add a few: "Hands" (that came out recently) Dave Holland and Pepe Habichuela. Spacious and natural.
The original "Fourplay" 1991 Warner Very dynamic and pleasant studio recording
Steely Dan "Two against nature" absolutely their best and brilliantly recorded.
Dave Crusin "Discovered again" Sheffield remaster. Not as good as the original vinyl, no, but still warm and somehow very inviting. Beautiful record actually.

I'll add a few: "Hands" (that came out recently) Dave Holland and Pepe Habichuela. Spacious and natural.
The original "Fourplay" 1991 Warner Very dynamic and pleasant studio recording
Steely Dan "Two against nature" absolutely their best and brilliantly recorded.
Dave Crusin "Discovered again" Sheffield remaster. Not as good as the original vinyl, no, but still warm and somehow very inviting. Beautiful record actually.

The Fourplay albums (I have a few) are indeed pleasant and well done. I find that they have a characteristic sonic signature though, with the bass and some other frequencies a little exagerated. I wouldn't use those as reference recordings, although the heavy bass can - indeed - be good to run some tests and detect bass response defects of the home system.

I'd also like to add my own favourite:
Dead Can Dance - Live Dublin 03-10-2005

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diyaudio is against your rights. I do not have the right to be forgotten and after asking the issue has been ignored, therefore I'm leaving (peacefully) for this reason. I stand up for my rights. So long and thanks for all the Fish

I find his name in a lot of well-produced albums as the mastering or re-mastering chap. I think all my Dire Straits albums have his name, and they are some of the best-sounding, most smooth-sounding (I think people call it "analog sounding") CDs of rock that I've heard. I think he also did the recent Abkco SACD releases of the Stones albums. Is his involvement a sign that one should pick up an unfamiliar album to try out?

My anwer to this is yes if you are looking for great SOUND(you may or may not like the content). Bud Ludwig is one of the finest mastering engineers in the business, and a personal friend of mine. Bob Katz, Doug Sax, Bernie Grundman, and Bob Ludwig are all mastering engineers I have worked with, and their work is second to none.

While I have a list as long as the distance from San Francisco to Los Angeles, my current favorite audiophile recording is the Mahler series with Claddio Abbado and the Lucern Festival orchestra on Bluray disc. It is in full 5.1 surround which effectively captures this rather large orchestra in the wonderful sounding Lucern Festival concert hall.

Thanks to everyone for posting their excellent suggestions here. Making a list of what to explore next. Recently heard "Strobe" by Deadmau5 from a Beolab 6000 speaker system at a holiday party. Highly recommend if you're into exploring some electronica.